MIKE PALACEK
was raised in Norfolk and graduated from Wayne State College in 1978.
He served several county jail and federal prison terms during the '80s for protesting
at Offutt Air Force Base. During the '90s he worked as a reporter at small newspapers in
Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa. In 2000 he was the Iowa Democratic Party nominee for the
US House of Representatives, Fifth District, receiving 65,000 votes on an anti-military
platform. Mike and Ruth Palecek and their two children now live in Sheldon, Iowa.